Post a Poem

[Bond]

Now I am quietly waiting for
the catastrophe of my personality
to seem beautiful again,
and interesting, and modern.

The country is grey and
brown and white in trees,
snows and skies of laughter
always diminishing, less funny
not just darker, not just grey.

It may be the coldest day of
the year, what does he think of
that? I mean, what do I? And if I do,
perhaps I am myself again.

- Frank O'Hara, Meditations in an Emergency

[Teuthida]

If little labour, little are our gains:
Man's fortunes are according to his pains.

– Robert Herrick, Hesperides 752

Got this one taped on the wall in front of my desk.

[Vampyr]

In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
Who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.
I said, "Is it good, friend?"
"It is bitter--bitter," he answered;
"But I like it
Because it is bitter,
And because it is my heart."

- Stephen Crane

[Combine 017]

Before I post ill have to think twice,
as to why you would want such a device.
They're kind of lame and dont make much sense,
and you can say they're meaning in one simple sentence.
But I digress,
and shall put this to rest.
Poems are dumb,
especially when sung.
Stupid Shakespear.

[Bube]

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

-Percy Bysshe Shelley

[Typhoid]

What will you find, where will you be
When you gotta trade for company
Those Plastic guns and Infantry
For a silent army in the trees
Well this ain't the woods behind the house
There ain't nobody screaming out for you to come inside and eat
You're just holding your friends and watching them bleed
Wore camouflage on Halloween
A plastic bag and M-16
Door to door and house to house
But ain't nobody handing it out
Ya nothings ever what it seems
When you're kicking in teeth and wishing it dreams
Just plastic guns and infantry
for a silent army in the trees
Now baby don't you let me down
A world away and still somehow
Can't shake the feeling that you'r out
With another man's arms wrapped tight around you
At night it's cold, we sit and freeze
Running "red lights" in our Humvees
Never thought I'd live to see the day I'd be
Afraid of little kids playing in the streets
Well this ain't the woods behind the house
There ain't nobody screaming out
For you to come inside and eat
You're just holding your friends and watching them bleed.


-(It's a song, actually)
-A Silent Army in the Trees by Matthew Good

[The Germanator]

Ape And Coffee

Some coffee had gotten on a man's ape. The man said,
animal did you get on my coffee?

No no, whistled the ape, the coffee got on me.

You're sure you didn't spill on my coffee? said the man.

Do I look like a liquid? peeped the ape.

Well you sure don't look human, said the man.

But that doesn't make me a fluid, twittered the ape.

Well I don' know what the hell you are, so just stop it,
cried the man.

I was just sitting here reading the newspaper when you
splashed coffee all over me, piped the ape.

I don't care if you are a liquid, you just better stop
splashing on things, cried the man.

Do I look fluid to you? Take a good look, hooted the ape.

If you don't stop I'll put you in a cup, screamed the man.

I'm not a fluid, screeched the ape.

Stop it, stop it, screamed the man, you are frightening me.

Russell Edson

I love Russell Edson. So weird, but it all kind of works...

[Acebot44]

"En Paz" by Amado Nervo,

*this is the english translation of the spanish original


At Peace

So near to my decline, I bless you, life
because you never gave me false hope
or work unjust or punishment undeserved;

because I see at the end of my harsh path
that I was the architect of my own destiny;
that if I extracted bitterness or sweetness of things,
it was because, in them, I placed a bitter or sweet taste;
when I planted rosebushes I always harvested roses.

It’s true though, after my blooming there will be winter
but you never told me May was so eternal!

I found nights of worry long,
but you never promised otherwise,
yet I had some that were sacredly serene…

I loved, I was loved, the sun caressed my face.
Life, you owe me nothing! Life, we are at peace!

[Professor S]

We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats’ feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar

Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion;

Those who have crossed
With direct eyes, to death’s other Kingdom
Remember us—if at all—not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men
The stuffed men.

Eyes I dare not meet in dreams
In death’s dream kingdom
These do not appear:
There, the eyes are
Sunlight on a broken column
There, is a tree swinging
And voices are
In the wind’s singing
More distant and more solemn
Than a fading star.

Let me be no nearer
In death’s dream kingdom
Let me also wear
Such deliberate disguises
Rat’s coat, crowskin, crossed staves
In a field
Behaving as the wind behaves
No nearer—

Not that final meeting
In the twilight kingdom

This is the dead land
This is cactus land
Here the stone images
Are raised, here they receive
The supplication of a dead man’s hand
Under the twinkle of a fading star.

Is it like this
In death’s other kingdom
Waking alone
At the hour when we are
Trembling with tenderness
Lips that would kiss
Form prayers to broken stone.

The eyes are not here
There are no eyes here
In this valley of dying stars
In this hollow valley
This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms

In this last of meeting places
We grope together
And avoid speech
Gathered on this beach of the tumid river

Sightless, unless
The eyes reappear
As the perpetual star
Multifoliate rose
Of death’s twilight kingdom
The hope only
Of empty men.

Here we go round the prickly pear
Prickly pear prickly pear
Here we go round the prickly pear
At five o’clock in the morning.

Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow

For Thine is the Kingdom

Between the conception
And the creation
Between the emotion
And the response
Falls the Shadow

Life is very long

Between the desire
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow

For Thine is the Kingdom

For Thine is
Life is
For Thine is the

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

"The Hollow Men" - T.S. Elliot

[BlueFire]

The Song of Wandering Aengus
William Butler Yeats

I WENT out to the hazel wood,
Because a fire was in my head,
And cut and peeled a hazel wand,
And hooked a berry to a thread;

And when white moths were on the wing,
And moth-like stars were flickering out,
I dropped the berry in a stream
And caught a little silver trout.

When I had laid it on the floor
I went to blow the fire a-flame,
But something rustled on the floor,
And some one called me by my name:
It had become a glimmering girl
With apple blossom in her hair
Who called me by my name and ran
And faded through the brightening air.

Though I am old with wandering
Through hollow lands and hilly lands,
I will find out where she has gone,
And kiss her lips and take her hands;
And walk among long dappled grass,
And pluck till time and times are done
The silver apples of the moon,
The golden apples of the sun.

and another Yeats:

A Drinking Song

WINE comes in at the mouth
And love comes in at the eye;
That's all we shall know for truth
Before we grow old and die.
I lift the glass to my mouth,
I look at you, and I sigh.

[Gambit_X]

As T. S. Eliot is my favorite poet, I'd like to post "The Wasteland," but it's a million lines long, so I'll post a couple of mine. Not fishing for compliments, either.
-------------

Last night I fell asleep
At the wheel of my car,
Driving thoughts of you and me
Out of my head. It's hard,
But now the stage is set,
And I am ready to act.
Here comes my line, "You bet!
I'm happy, I don't need her back."

But that's such a lie

You can't complain
While I am trying so hard
I'll forget your name
If you will help me discard
Guilt and regret that's building
Walls that keep us
Miles and miles and miles
Apart

I'm taking photographs
of dying things and setting sun,
And though I hate to laugh
It's hard not to poke fun.
I'm at a loss for words;
Things I took for granted fell apart.
And though it's so absurd,
For you, I'm ready to start

Lying through my teeth.

You can't complain
While I am trying so hard.
I'll forget your name
If you will help me discard
Guilt and regret that's building
Walls that keep us
Miles and Miles and Miles
Apart

-One of my older, angsty works
----------
Let it snow

Let in the cold, the damp, and the heavy
Let it fill us with regret and with envy
Of warmer places we think that we know
From times we remember from not long ago

Let it snow

Let it surround us and let it confound us
Let it collect and reflect the incorrect
We’ll all say things we don’t really mean
It’s the nature of the season to present the obscene

Let it snow

Let it freeze our minds and make us forget
Let it fill us with loss and make us regret
We'll remember the sun and feel its glow
'Til brittle is broken and gone is the snow.

Let it snow

-One of my recents.

[Vampyr]

As T. S. Eliot is my favorite poet, I'd like to post "The Wasteland," but it's a million lines long, so I'll post a couple of mine. Not fishing for compliments, either.


Yeah, I am also a big T.S. Eliot fan, and I love The Wasteland.

Favorite part:

"What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow
Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man,
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water. Only
There is shadow under this red rock,
(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),
And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust."


edit: "Howl" by Ginsberg is another poem I would post if not for the length.

[Teuthida]

I am Sam

I am Sam
Sam I am

That Sam-I-am
That Sam-I-am!
I do not like
that Sam-I-am

Do you like
green eggs and ham

I do not like them,
Sam-I-am.
I do not like
green eggs and ham.

Would you like them
Here or there?

I would not like them
here or there.
I would not like them
anywhere.
I do not like
green eggs and ham.
I do not like them,
Sam-I-am

Would you like them
in a house?
Would you like them
with a mouse?

I do not like them
in a house.
I do not like them
with a mouse.
I do not like them
here or there.
I do not like them
anywhere.
I do not like green eggs and ham.
I do not like them, Sam-I-am.


Would you eat them
in a box?
Would you eat them
with a fox?

Not in a box.
Not with a fox.
Not in a house.
Not with a mouse.
I would not eat them here or there.
I would not eat them anywhere.
I would not eat green eggs and ham.
I do not like them, Sam-I-am.

Would you? Could you?
in a car?
Eat them! Eat them!
Here they are.

I woould not ,
could not,
in a car

You may like them.
You will see.
You may like them
in a tree?
d not in a tree.
I would not, could not in a tree.
Not in a car! You let me be.

I do not like them in a box.
I do not like them with a fox
I do not like them in a house
I do mot like them with a mouse
I do not like them here or there.
I do not like them anywhere.
I do not like green eggs and ham.
I do not like them, Sam-I-am.

A train! A train!
A train! A train!
Could you, would you
on a train?

Not on a train! Not in a tree!
Not in a car! Sam! Let me be!
I would not, could not, in a box.
I could not, would not, with a fox.
I will not eat them with a mouse
I will not eat them in a house.
I will not eat them here or there.
I will not eat them anywhere.
I do not like them, Sam-I-am.


Say!
In the dark?
Here in the dark!
Would you, could you, in the dark?

I would not, could not,
in the dark.

Would you, could you,
in the rain?

I would not, could not, in the rain.
Not in the dark. Not on a train,
Not in a car, Not in a tree.
I do not like them, Sam, you see.
Not in a house. Not in a box.
Not with a mouse. Not with a fox.
I will not eat them here or there.
I do not like them anywhere!

You do not like
green eggs and ham?

I do not
like them,
Sam-I-am.

Could you, would you,
with a goat?

I would not,
could not.
with a goat!

Would you, could you,
on a boat?

I could not, would not, on a boat.
I will not, will not, with a goat.
I will not eat them in the rain.
I will not eat them on a train.
Not in the dark! Not in a tree!
Not in a car! You let me be!
I do not like them in a box.
I do not like them with a fox.
I will not eat them in a house.
I do not like them with a mouse.
I do not like them here or there.
I do not like them ANYWHERE!

I do not like
green egss
and ham!

I do not like them,
Sam-I-am.

You do not like them.
SO you say.
Try them! Try them!
ANd you may.
Try them and you may I say.

Sam!
If you will let me be,
I will try them.
You will see.

Say!
I like green eggs and ham!
I do!! I like them, Sam-I-am!
And I would eat them in a boat!
And I would eat them with a goat...
And I will eat them in the rain.
And in the dark. And on a train.
And in a car. And in a tree.
They are so goodm so goodm you see!

So I will eat them in a box.
And I will eat them with a fox.
And I will eat them in a house.
And I will eat them with a mouse.
And I will eat them here and there.
Say! I will eat them ANHYWHERE!

I do so like
green eggs and ham!
Thank you!
Thank you,
Sam-I-am

Ape And Coffee

Some coffee had gotten on a man's ape. The man said,
animal did you get on my coffee?

No no, whistled the ape, the coffee got on me.

You're sure you didn't spill on my coffee? said the man.

Do I look like a liquid? peeped the ape.

Well you sure don't look human, said the man.

But that doesn't make me a fluid, twittered the ape.

Well I don' know what the hell you are, so just stop it,
cried the man.

I was just sitting here reading the newspaper when you
splashed coffee all over me, piped the ape.

I don't care if you are a liquid, you just better stop
splashing on things, cried the man.

Do I look fluid to you? Take a good look, hooted the ape.

If you don't stop I'll put you in a cup, screamed the man.

I'm not a fluid, screeched the ape.

Stop it, stop it, screamed the man, you are frightening me.

Russell Edson


I think I'm in love.

[TheSlyMoogle]

What will you find, where will you be
When you gotta trade for company
Those Plastic guns and Infantry
For a silent army in the trees
Well this ain't the woods behind the house
There ain't nobody screaming out for you to come inside and eat
You're just holding your friends and watching them bleed
Wore camouflage on Halloween
A plastic bag and M-16
Door to door and house to house
But ain't nobody handing it out
Ya nothings ever what it seems
When you're kicking in teeth and wishing it dreams
Just plastic guns and infantry
for a silent army in the trees
Now baby don't you let me down
A world away and still somehow
Can't shake the feeling that you'r out
With another man's arms wrapped tight around you
At night it's cold, we sit and freeze
Running "red lights" in our Humvees
Never thought I'd live to see the day I'd be
Afraid of little kids playing in the streets
Well this ain't the woods behind the house
There ain't nobody screaming out
For you to come inside and eat
You're just holding your friends and watching them bleed.


-(It's a song, actually)
-A Silent Army in the Trees by Matthew Good

I was reading this and I was like "I know this, who wrote this poem?" then I was like "Wait a minute!"

I love you Sean. Matthew Good is so good.


Soneto XVII

No te amo como si fueras rosa de sal, topacio
o flecha de claveles que propagan el fuego:
te amo como se aman ciertas cosas oscuras,
secretamente, entre la sombra y el alma.

Te amo como la planta que no florece y lleva
dentro de sí, escondida, la luz de aquellas flores,
y gracias a tu amor vive oscuro en mi cuerpo
el apretado aroma que ascendió de la tierra.

Te amo sin saber cómo, ni cuándo, ni de dónde,
te amo directamente sin problemas ni orgullo:
así te amo porque no sé amar de otra manera,

sino así de este modo en que no soy ni eres,
tan cerca que tu mano sobre mi pecho es mía,
tan cerca que se cierran tus ojos con mi sueño.


-Pablo Neruda

For those of you who can read spanish, even if you don't understand all the words, read this out loud to yourself. It's so pretty.

For those who want to know the translation:



Sonnet 17

I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
so I love you because I know no other way

in which there is no I or you
so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand
so intimate that when you fall asleep it is my eyes that close

-Pablo Neruda